Mozart: Arias. (Video).(Video Recording Review)

[] Bartoli; Concentus Musicus Wien, Harnoncourt. (With Symphony No. 38). Opus Arte BBC OA 0869 D (Naxos, dist.), 83 mins. (concert), 30 mins. (special features)

The musical selections on this release are of such interest that it almost doesn't matter how tree the performances are. When Cecilia Bartoli was singing Susanna in the new Met production of Le Nozze di Figaro in 1998, at some performances she offered two substitute arias written by Mozart for a Viennese Figaro revival. Both of them, "Un moto di gioia" and "Al desio di chi t'adora," are included here, along with two other insertion arias and the better-known concert aria "Bella mia fiamma." Bartoli and conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt make a real case for all of this music.

"Un moto di gioia," almost always heard in piano reduction, gets a radical reinterpretation. Harnoncourt hears it as a proto-waltz, the upbeats toyed with in Viennese fashion, the wind solos (so similar to those in Susanna's "Deh, vieni, non tardar") cackling and giggling, the orchestra fairly inciting the singer to new heights of enjoyment. Another insertion aria, "Vado, ma dove?", also is given a highly individual cast. Bartoli's tone is initially dark and unyielding, then fine-drawn as the emotions deepen. The exclamation "Oh Dei" is not rhetorical for her: she makes a real prayer of it. It's a reminder of how well this aria worked when Craig Smith and Peter Sellars substituted it for Dorabella's "E amore un ladroncello" in Cosi Fan Tutte, a ...